Friday, January 30, 2015

http://www.newsreview.com/chico/dioxin-concerns/content?oid=16147745The soil around South Oroville is tainted by cancer-causing
chemicals. That’s according to recent studies by local scientists
concerned about dioxins left over from the Pacific Oroville Power Inc.
(POPI) facility there. Some of the samples show levels so high they
would make the World Health Organization shudder.Of five local samples tested, one was determined to have 1,000 parts
per trillion (PPT), far beyond the WHO’s 40 PPT level of concern.
Another was found to have 170 PPT, while results for three others range
from 4.4 to 32 PPT. Dioxins are a carcinogen that can cause reproductive
problems and other human health problems.The tests were triggered by the discovery of dioxins in the ash
created by the operations of the POPI plant, which first fired up in the
1980s and created energy by burning timber waste—wood chips created by
the downing of trees. But in the 1990s, as the timber industry died down
in Northern California, the plant began burning urban waste—the remains
of torn down buildings, which included asbestos, lead and other
potentially environment-damaging materials.

Geologist John Lane gathers soil samples

When the Butte County District Attorney’s Office learned of the
practice, it began testing the ash that resulted. High levels of dioxins
were discovered. POPI was owned and operated by a New Jersey-based
company called Covanta. The company stopped its Oroville operations in
2012 and was named in a lawsuit by a number of communities where such
plants operated, including Butte County. Last year, the suit was settled
with the local DA’s office collecting $186,000 of an $825,000 overall
settlement.Dioxins in the region may also have come from the nearby and
now-closed Koppers wood treatment plant, which had major fires in 1963
and 1987 that resulted in dioxin-laden smoke and ash drifting across the
area.The soil tests are being paid for by both the DA’s office and the
Butte Environmental Council (BEC) through a sub-group called the
Oroville Dioxin Education Committee (ODEC). The soil samples and their
location determinations are being organized by John Lane, the geologist
who owns and operates Chico Environmental Science and Planning. Lane
conducted the initial ash testing that revealed the presence of dioxins.READ MORE